Secondary battery.



no. 629,325. y Patentdluly 25, |399.

R. ASHLEY- SECONDARY BATTERY.

' \Applica.ton filed July 29, 1897) (No Model.) 2 Sheeis-Sheet I.

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www @me No. 629,325. Patented :my 25, |399.

n. ASHLEY.

SECNDABY BATTERY. :Appximzion med .my 29, 1897.)

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110. Model.)

v UNITED STATiasg PATENT OFFICE.

RALPH vASHLEY, OF PORT REPUBLIQNEW' JERSEY, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THEELEOTRIC POWER DEVELOPMENT COMPANY.

sEcoN DARY BATTERY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 629,325, dated July 25, 1899. Ap'pncafmsid my 29, 1897. serai Na'stasn. (no man.;

T all when@ t may concern/.- l y.

'Be itknown that I, RALPH ASHLEY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident ot' Port Republic, in the county of Atlantic and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Secondaryr make and use the same, referencebeingfhadj to the accompanying drawings, which formI a partici' this specification. Y My invention relates to storage batteries,

it pertaining to improvements in the cups or trays respectively constituting parts of the cells and also to improvements in the construction and arrangement of the electrodes which are combined. in such cells.

2o Figure 1V is a longitudinal vertical sectional view of a storage battery embodying my improvenienti. .Fig. 2 is a plan view showing parts thereof. Fig. 3 is aperspective of a pair or couple of electrodes detached. Fig.

4 is a perspective of one of the frame pieces or supports for the active material. Fig. 5

is an elevation of one of the active plates.

Fig. 6 shows parts of Fig. 1 ona larger scale.

ln the drawings the numeral 1 indicates one of the cells or trays. Each rectangular in form and is composed of hard rubber or other suitable insulating material with end Walls, side walls, and a bottom, all integral. Along the exterior corners of the bottom and the top there are grooves, as atvember 23, 1897, in some respects, including this-namely, that in the present case the side walls of thp cells are vertical and the bottom of one cell rests upon the top of that below, whereas in my earlier construction the side Walls of each cell were flared outwardly and upwardly. In large and heavy batteries the flaring form possesses marked advantages 5o because of the possibility of bringing the meof these is tallic and heavier parts of one cell into close juxtaposition with those of the adjacent one, one cell bottom rest-ing directly upon the next; but there are occasions Where substantially tight vertically continuous side Walls are desirable, and for such, a cell or cup of the character of that herein 'is' intended; but

it then becomes necessary to provide another means for permitting the gases to escape and for supporting the electric conductors which 6o extend'from one cell to the next, and provisions for these matters are yherein made, as. will be described below.

vThe numeral at indicates the positive electrode, and 5 the negative. Each electrode 65 comprises an end bar 9 and a series of armlike or nger-like bars, or framefpieces extending laterally from the end bar, together with masses of active material supported therein. Each arm --like frame has one or 7o more openings 6. 'In each opening there are loosely packed a number of metal plates 2, formed from lead tape orstrips and roughcned'by passing them between emery-*wheels or the like to form a very large number of minute indentations therein, and then subjected to the action of nitric acid to form them or render them active. Each plate -is formed with a notch 8 at each end, in which notches lie the bars of the supporting-frame. 8o

The plates are closely and yet, as above stated, loosely packed in their retaining-openings and placed with the faces of each directly contacting'with the faces of those adjacent, so that there is a great extending of the total active surface. When each set or mass of the plates is initially introduced into its opening 6, a` space is left at the end of the opening; but as soon as the electrode is formed by electrolytic action the series of 9o plates are forced by their expansion so as to. occupy the entire space.

Therframe-bars are relatively narrow and thin, but solid and strong, While the plates of active material are relatively considerably Widerthat is to say, there is a reduction to the minimum of the solid and less permeable metal and, on the contrary, an increase in the maximum of the lighter thinner active material. 10o

It must be noticed that there is here'an es- Vsential 'difference'whenl comparison is made Y with earlier devices having lead-tape strips.r In the earlier rcases such strips-Were either 'rigidly fastened-'in placeor were used merely as the retaining devices for the granular or f lreduced peroxid yof lead or other material Y withsimilar.consistency and purpose.l f Here the tape itself constitutes the enti-re active mass, theV indented yor yrougnened surfaces of4 the tape strips being placed in ycontactl l each with those adiacent and not having the spacesy between'them lled'with lead peroXidV The indentingorrough-y Vening of the surfaces Vis to not onlyfassist the strips or platesin being active, but yalso to` or other material.

is tightly packed' in ythe intervening. spaces and which prevents such freeV circulation, and I believe myselfr to be the first to have devised an electrode in which yuse is made cfa frame of solid relativelyrigid4 metal Vreduced f to theininimnm in mass Vin connectionwith several sets erm asses of lead-tape" strips,y those ofeach set or mass being indirect 'contact facel to facefwhien immersedxin the electroylytic liquid,bnt held loosely in thexframe, wherebyr there is provision forfexpansion in.

ypernfiittingeach. piece to be moved bodilyfat V Y its ends and the strips being indented or roughcned on their surfaces to increase the area of activity and to permit free circulation of liquid between them; but inasmuch as there are several features .of novelty incident to the electrodes and the cells and to their relative arrangement I do not wish to be understood as limiting the improvements in electrodes to this matter alone of having the active lead tape or coil strips all parallel and'contacting from end to end with each other, as many of the said features of improvement can be retained, even though some of the strips be corrugated or undulatory in form, as shown in Fig. 6 at 7a and also in Figs. 1 and 3. Here also we have the same relation between the strips and the retaining-frame that is illustrated at 7 in the drawings.

I now call attention to another important matter incident to the present battery. In all the 'batteries with non-conducting cellcups within my knowledge that have heretofore gone ,into use the electrode-plates have been very wide on vertical lines, and the cups themselves have been correspondingly deep, and an increase in the depth of the cups and the plates has been generally resorted to when it was desired to enlarge the power or efficiency of such a cell; but I have discovered that one of the principal difficulties incident to the ordinary storage batteries and one of the chief reasons why it is necessary to have a large mass of material of great weight in order to reach necessary efficiency is that the lto thel others iny active efficiency.

specific gravity of the bath or electrolytic mass varies to a marked extent atdifferentpoints Y vertically. The efficiency of a ygiven stratum-say one an inch deep-near the bottom of an ordinary cell varies perceptihly fromy that ofza similar stratumnear the top, and I have found that uniform action cannot bc obtained where the cell and the contained mass of electrolyte aref-relatively. deepy and the plates are vertically. wide; Y but I have found thatwhen the electrodes are constructed and Y arranged uponthe principle herein presented f I secure substantially uniform action throughout.l f I emplcy a shallow massofelectrolyte, throughontwhich there is practicallyfno lva.-r

riation in the specific gravity. The arms or 4vfingers of each electrode are n ot of the nature of wide-plates', but are relatively narrow, although capable of indeiin ite elongation as circumstances require,y and adapted to` be sub-V mergedy in a shallow electrolyte, as aforesaid.

Then to provide a'snfficient mass or volumeV Y of active m'aterial'erfelectrolyte for the .entire battery I place one celliuponanother, bringingr their bottomsrelatively close together. f Y Thus, considering the activeparts of the bat- V tery as 'an entirety, I have not a vertically- Vdeep unitary 1nass,ras is common, but aflarge number of shallo'wmasses placedfclose lto-l gether and eachl capable of being made equal In order:

of the cells tcbe thushroughtclose together,

Ir arrange a .positive and a negative, so that the arms or iingers of the one shall alternate with those ofY the other, a negative Varm lying between two adjacent positive arms, and vice versa, except that I prefer to have a positive 'arm on the outside at each end of the series. The end bar 9 of the positive electrode lies along one side of the bottom of the cell and the end bar of the negative electrode lies along the opposite side, the inner ends of the positive arms being disconnected, as are also those of the negative. The negative electrode of each cell above the lowermost one is secured to the under side of its bottom, and the several parts are so related that all of the negative electrode-arms lie more or less in the same horizontal planes with the arms of a positive electrode, this permitting each upper cell to be brought to relatively low lines. In this respect also the present construction is an improvement upon those shown in my earlier patents, Nos. 594,313 and 591,365. I then arrange one electrode in horizontal lines entirely above those of the other, but have now devised means for having the two electrodes lie substantially in the same horizontal planes, and I am now able to obtain from iifty to one hundred per cent. more efficiency from a battery having the same dimensions vertically and laterally. Each negative electrode is fastened at one end to the under side of a cell-bottom by means of the conductorstrip 14, which passes up from the end bar 9 on thc underside of the cell through the bot- IGC@ ICS

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tom and into the interior and is secured to the positive electrode upon the upper side of said bottom and at the other end is fastened by means of supporting-strips 10, of any suitable number, secured to the ends of its arms and extending upward through the cellbottom and secured to the vertical side wall of the cell by pins 13. 'The several arms of the negative electrode are held to the trayside of the cell-bottom.

bottom onsuch transverse linesthat when it is put in position upon a tray or cell below these arms will drop down into positionbetween the arms of the positive electrode forthe purpose above described. Y At 12 12 there are channels or ducts of any suitable nun1- ber along one of the vertical walls ofthe cell, and at 15 one or more similar ducts are formed along the opposite wall. These channels'are closed, except at their upper ends, against communication with the interior chamber of the cell. Theirlower ends open at the under They are of such length vertically that their upper ends lie at or above the top surface of the electrolyte material. Each channel 15 receives one of the conductors 14 and each of the channels 12 receives one of the supporting-strips 10, and in both' cases'the walls ot the channels surround the conductors or metal strips and normally prevent contactof the liquid with the latter. Two plans have been heretofore followed in arranging the conductorsin such cells. In one case an aperture is formed in the bottom of the tray and into said aperture was inserted a metallic conductor, its endsl projecting, respectively, up and down from y the bottom and being immersed in the electrolyte. The other plan is that shown inmy Patent No. 591,265, in which case the conductor is carried up on the outside of the wall of the tray and then down on the inside. Of these two plans the first vis objectionable in that the conductor through the tray-bottom being constantly in contact with the electrolyte is subject to corrosion and in a shorty deterioration are prevented, and at the saine Yss time there is protection against exposure of the metallic parts upon the outside of the battery.

In some extraordinary cases the boiling action in the cell may be so violent as to causeV an overflow of the liquid, and at such times A the surplus or overow liquid can escape through the channels 12 and 15 and be caught in the cell below. Again', as the metal strips fit loosely in the channels there is sufficient passage-way through the latter to allow the gases that are evolved to readily escape up-v ward to the top of the battery, and thus perfforations lthrdugh the cell-walls are unnecestrode of the-lower cell is turned toward the right that of the cell next above would be turned toward the left, and so on throughout the series-and of course there willl be a corresponding opposite arrangement of the positive electrodes.

lIn the most of the figures in the drawings and in the above description I have presented an electrode having a narrow arm for supporting the active material, such as shown in Fig. 4f, said arm having but on'e horizontal-series of openings 6; but so far as concerns that part of the invention which relatesV to having the strips hf lead plate or tape packed together in masses, each mass in one of the openings, it will be seen that the frame can be wider without departing from the essential features of this part of the device.

' What I claim isl; In. a storage battery the combination with the series of cells, superimposed upon IOO one another forming a stack or pile, and said 4cells at one end or side formed with a vertical IIO otherso as to form a stack or pile, and formed with a vertical channel in one end, of the posi- -tive and negative electrodes located in said cells, the negative electrode secured to the bottom of the cell above and the conductors con'- necting the negative electrode of one cell with the positive one on the cell above, throughout the series, substantially as described.

3. In a storage battery,thecombination with the superimposed cells, having vertical channels in oppositev ends or sides, of` the positive electrodes located in said cells and supported on the bottom thereof, the negative electrodes also located in said cells, the strip or strips connected therewith and passing up through the channel or channels in one end of the cell above, the pin securing them in place, and the conducting-strip connected with the negative electrodes and passing up through the channel in the other end of said cell above and-connected with the positive electrode in said cell, substantially as described.

4. In a'storage battery,the combination with the series of superimposed cells, each having a channel in one end or side Wall, of the positive and negative electrodes,consistin g of the alternately-aman ged frames, those of each electrode connected together at one end and the conductors passing up through said channels, substantially as described.

f 5. In a storage battery,the combination with the series of superimposed cells, each having a vertical channel inone end or side Wall, of the positive and negative electrodes consisting of the alternately-arranged parallel open frames connected together at opposite ends, the meta-l plates packed in the channel or channels of said frame, and the conductors passing up through the channels in said cells, substantially as described.

6. In astorage battery,the combination with the series of superimposed cells, having channels in the side or end Walls, of the positive electrodes consisting of the parallel frames connected together at one end, the negative electrodes consisting of the parallel frames located between the frames of the positive electrodes and connected together at the opposite ends, the supporting-strips connected with the negative electrodes and passing up through the channel in one end of said cells and the conductor passing up through the channel at the opposite end, substantially as described.

7. An electrode for a storage battery consisting of a rectangular frame formed With a number of .rectangular openings, and the removable metallic platesinserted in said openings having notches in their ends engaging with the edges of said openings, substantially as set forth.

8. An electrode for a storage battery consisting of a number of rectangular, parallel, conducting-frames connected together at one end and formed with a number of rectangular openings, and the bundles of superposed oxidizable metallic plates located in said openings, and the plates of one opening being arrangedat right angles to those of the adjoining openings, substantially as set forth.

9. An electrode for a storage battery having a supporting-frame of relatively thin, solid metal arranged to provide bars snrrounding one or more open spaces, and, in each of said open spaces, a mass of active material formed of a series of thin lead strips Wider than the said bars, and loosely engaging therewith at their ends,-whereby the strips of said mass can move bodily under eXpansion,.and said strips being arranged to contact face to face from end to end, and being indented upon their faces and arranged to permit the electrolyte fluid to circulate between and come into free contact With the said indented faces, substantially as set forth.

l0. An electrode for a storage battery, consisting of a series of masses of active material, each mass comprising a series of parallel strips of lead tape, the strips in one mass extending at right angles to the strips in the next adjacent masses, and a frame or holder supporting all of said masses, substantially as set forth.

11. The herein-described battery-electrode, consisting of a frame having a series of holders formed therein, and a series of strips of lead tape arranged Within each of said holders, the strips in each holder extending in a direction different from that of the strips in any of the adjacent holders, substantially as set forth.

l2. The herein-described electrode, consisting of an inclosing frame, having its interior divided by a series of cross-bars into a series of holders, and a series of strips of lead tape arranged Within each of said holders, and engaging With the bars forming the same, thestrips in one holder extendingin a direction different from the strips in adjacent holders, substantially as set forth.

13. In a storage battery a series of two or more superimposed hard-rubber or non-conducting cells, each having upward-extending side Walls, and a horizontal bottom, in combination with electrodes arranged in couples, the electrodes of each couple lying in the same horizontal planes, and situated between the bottom of one cell and the bottom of the cell b'eloW, and the negative electrode of said .couple being rigidly secured to the bottom of thelupper cell, substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereunto affixed my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

, RALPH ASHLEY. WVitnesses:

ANNIE ASHLEY, CORNELIUS GARRIsoN.

IOO 

